This morning I witnessed the most incredible sunrise I've seen here yet. Beautiful. Today I'm going to try to summarize Thursday night to now. Thursday night was alright. I ended up getting the room downstairs with 3 others, Teddy, Shannon, and Jenna. All are nice girls but I've gotton along with Teddy really well this trip. I arrived around dinner time, so I ended up getting a drink and then sharing my Mzushi experience with some of my new friends. Most of the volunteers were tired and went to bed early but I had the worst sleep that night. The music was super loud and, being downstairs, you can hear everything going on above. I slept on and off but was glad when morning finally rolled around. Friday was orientation day (round two). We had a meeting where Chris and Nora explained the rules/dos and don'ts around here, then we were briefed on the various tasks we'll be working on this session. We then headed over to the construction site to see all what our group would be laboring over, including the infamous PIT. Personally, I'm sticking the Ed (education) group so we split off the discuss and work on the lesson plans for the week. Because Ramadan is this week, the children are on holiday and do not actually have class. That being said, we won't be teaching at Matemwe this session. Instead, we'll be working with students at a school called Milamani and helping to prepare them for their English exams this coming August and October. We're working on conducting a placement test that will be given tomorrow! Friday afternoon we went to the beach and played in the water. funfun. Not too much happened after that, except the music was even louder that night. Chilled out and talked with Teddy and others, but that's about it. This group seems to be more of a drinking/party type. We'll see.

Saturday, I had a bit of a skip day with GG2. I helped pack bottles in the AM and then ventured to Tamani to join Vivian and the students on a field trip to a festival in Nungwi. It was great. Ah, I totally forgot that Friday night our group went to Tamani to receive our cultural orientation from Vivian, followed by a Q + A with the students. This session focused a lot on marriage and dating, which was still super interesting to hear about. That probably is a highlight of my trip. Just talking and asking students questions about their views on life is so me. ha. Back to the field trip; what a day. We left around 11am and took a rented dalla dalla to Nungwi's festival. The shops around sold items that focused on a "sustainability" theme. They had clothing items, jewelry, a solar-electricity display, and food items. Rebecca, the hotel owner, works with a group of women who are taught how to make various jams and marmalade. She uses that jam in her hotel and it was delicious so I ended up purchasing a jar of it at the festival. There were always many "visual activities": acrobatics/gymnast activities, potato sack races, food eating contests, and acting shows (aka plays). I thought it was interesting that they used microphones with cords because in the US we're so used to headsets and wireless mics. Very interesting to see how technologically behind this culture is, yet still happy/not phased at how it could be. (unaware maybe? Then again, it's not like I really talked to adult villagers about what they thought about the items they lack). Vivian and I had many great discussions on life, Muslim culture, and dating. We compared them to Christianity and honestly, when everything is broken down, it really isn't that different. Christianity is so watered down that it's easy to assume certain aspects of dating, like dating for fun, for example. I really love talking with Vivian and I'm excited to continue getting to know her. I also had the boys there help me translate quite a bit and I'm impressed with their help, especially Silima and Juma. Both are great and will only continue to improve. I took the dalla dalla back to Baby Bush, had dinner, and then went to bed. A big group of people stayed up to party and you could tell the next day. One guy in particular loves his alcohol. They played drinking games and honestly I found it pointless. I'd much rather have meaningful conversations than get drunk. I am so not normal... haha. Anyways, that was Saturday. Finally, yesterday. Yesterday our group did "Dolphin Day" and it was successful! I jumped in and finally saw dolphins underwater. Beautiful. I was also stung by a jellyfish so that experience was completely new. I felt a bit sick but no actual throwing up this time. So good! After, we went to see the Colobus (meaning no thumb) monkeys and we were able to see some of the baby monkeys too! After that we went to the turtle aquarium/reservation. Then we headed to Stone town just to eat dinner. That was awesome. I got "pizza", fries, and a plate full of mixed fruit. I was super happy. Plus I bought sugarcane, peanuts, and chips for later... all for about 8,000 schillings or about $5.00. So cheap! That evening I chilled out and talked with Harley and Nish about life/random stuff/why we aren't huge party-ers. It was nice and I'm glad that I'm making friends here. Also, I met up with Richard and Heather in Stone town. I miss them so much and they successfully climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro! I'm super proud of them and glad I could talk with them, even if it was brief. And that concludes my updates, as I am finally caught up!!-Amanda

ps. Vivian has me halfway convinced to come back here January to March to teach nutrition and English. Something I definitely need to think and pray about..but it sounds like an incredible offer. And, let's be honest, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'd just need to provide travel expenses.